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Miners' Guild
| upkeep_cost = | sells_for = | effects = Increases by 50% of the total output of the town's citizens. Also increases the effects of most types of Minerals in the town's vicinity by 50%, and some by 100%. Wild Game and Nightshade are not affected. | building_unlock = | unit_unlock = }} The Miners' Guild is a type of Town Building. The Miners' Guild may be built by any race except the Lizardmen and Trolls. A town must have at least one Mountain, Volcano, Hills, or Chaos Node tile in its vicinity, and must already contain a Builders' Hall in order to construct a Miners' Guild. The Miners' Guild's base construction cost is . The Miners' Guild has two important bonuses, though one may not apply to all towns. For starters. the Miners' Guild gives a bonus of equal to 50% of the total amount of currently generated by the town's citizens, improving construction speed of all other buildings and units. Furthermore, if the town has any Minerals in its vicinity, the effect of these minerals may be increased by up to 100% (depending on the type of Minerals present). For most races that have access to the University (but not all of them), the Miners' Guild eventually unlocks construction of the Mechanicians' Guild, which will further increase output. For the Dwarves, the Miners' Guild unlocks something different: the Steam Cannon siege engine. The Miners' Guild requires an Upkeep Cost of per turn for its maintenance. If you're pressed for Gold, a Miners' Guild can be sold back for . Description The Miners' Guild is a meeting-place for the town's miners and for architects and surveyors specializing in mine construction and operation. It allows specialists to exchange ideas and to improve the efficiency of the town's mines. With better digging methods, mine output can be increased by a significant amount, lives can be saved, and the extraction of ore from particular veins can be maximized. In-game, the Miners' Guild appears simply as a mine, situated for some reason within the city itself. The mine consists of a small hut next to a wooden winching tower, which is lowering buckets into a hole in the ground. Of course this is just a representation of the Miners' Guild, rather than the actual structure itself - which would more reasonably be a grand hall for the Miners to congregate. Races and Construction All Races except the Lizardmen and Trolls have access to the Miners' Guild. Lizardmen show little interest in working with their surrounding environment, while Trolls lack the intellectual abilities to improve their mines beyond their basic efficiency. In order to construct a Miners' Guild, the town must have at least one tile of Hills, Mountains or Volcanoes within its catchment area. Otherwise, the Miners' Guild will not appear as an option for construction. Furthermore, due to the complex construction techniques required for both the Miners' Guild hall itself as well as the improved mines, a town requires the Builders' Hall before it can build a Miners' Guild. If the Builders' Hall is missing, the Miners' Guild cannot be built. In fact, if the Builders' Hall is lost or sold off while the Miners' Guild is still in construction, the project will be canceled prematurely and cannot be restarted until these required buildings are rebuilt. Construction of a Miners' Guild costs . This is prohibitively expensive for new towns, though some races may still be able to construct it earlier than others. Unit-production towns, as well as any town that has access to plenty of Minerals, may still wish to undertake this project as early as possible. Continuous Effects The presence of a Miners' Guild in a town has two separate effects: Increased output, and increased benefit from various types of Minerals within the town's catchment area (if any). Production Bonus While a Miners' Guild exists in a town, it will boost the output of this town. Essentially it increases the productivity of each worker by 50% - though the percentage applies to the total production of all citizens put together, rather than individually. In other words, the game looks at the total of all citizens in the town, and then the Miners' Guild produces exactly 50% of this - rounded down. The extra is listed separately in the Production Breakdown chart, so the Miners' Guild's effect is clearly visible there. For example, if the town's citizens yield a total of , the Miners' Guild will add a bonus . If they yield a total of , the Miners' Guild will add (45 * 50%, rounded down). The bonus is automatically adjusted whenever the citizens' output is changed for whatever reason. Therefore, if a town grows or diminishes in size, or its citizens are redistributed, the benefits of the Miners' Guild will rise and fall respectively. This bonus is calculated based only on the total generated by the citizens - ignoring any other bonuses or other sources of a town may get. For example, the presence or absence of a Sawmill -- which also increases -- does not affect the bonus from the Miners' Guild in any way. Mineral Effect Bonus The Miners' Guild has the ability to increase the benefit from certain types of Minerals within the town's catchment area. If the town has no such minerals, this bonus is ignored. While the Miners' Guild exists in a town, nearby Silver Ore, Gold Ore and Gems will produce 50% more for the town than normal (rounded down). Similarly, Adamantium Ore, Quork Crystals and Crysx Crystals will produce 50% more than normal (rounded down). Sadly, Mithril Ore is so weak (giving only by default) that a 50% rounded down bonus does not improve this mineral. Finally, the Coal and Iron Ore bonus, which reduces the cost of constructing Normal Units, is doubled. The table below shows the final benefit from each type of Mineral with and without the Miners' Guild: Any Minerals not appearing in the list above are not affected in any way by the Miners' Guild. Also note that the effect applies separately to each mineral. This is why Mithril Ore, for example, gets no benefit from a Miners' Guild even if there are two or more Mithril tiles near the town. Instead of giving 50% (rounded down) of the combined output of all Mithril Ore tiles, the Miners' Guild gives 50% (rounded down) of the output of each individual ore (i.e. 0 each), resulting in no bonus at all. Unlocked Town Buildings Although the Miners' Guild does not unlock any new Town Buildings on its own, several races will be able to advance past this structure and construct the Mechanicians' Guild. This includes the High Elves, High Men, Nomads, Orcs, Beastmen and Dark Elves. The reason why the Mechanicians' Guild can be constructed by so few races is that it requires a University. The University gives scholars a place to study advanced mechanical ideas, whereas the Miners' Guild applies those ideas in practice every day, resulting in the need for a separate academy and workshop dedicated only for construction of new machines and mechanical devices - thus resulting in the Mechanicians' Guild. This structure then provides the same cumulative bonus as the Miners' Guild (though with no Mineral bonuses). Unlocked Normal Units For almost all races, the Miners' Guild unlocks no new Normal Units for production. However, the increased rate - especially with Iron Ore or Coal present - makes it absolutely invaluable for any unit-producing town! For the Dwarves however, the Miners' Guild unlocks production of the Steam Cannon. While this weapon lacks the Wall-Crushing capability of the Catapult, and does not have the same high accuracy, it is both stronger against enemy units and highly Resistant to magic. Also, since the Miners' Guild is easy to reach along the building progression chart, Dwarves can produce these deadly war machines fairly early - whereas other races would have to wait until a Mechanicians' Guild can be constructed (at a very high expense!) to get their siege engines. Strategy The Miners' Guild's heavy influence on makes it an absolutely essential structure for any serious unit-production center. Increased industry also makes a Miners' Guild important for rapidly-developing towns, as they prepare to build top-tier Town Buildings like the University, etc. Most importantly, any town that has access to at least one type of Mineral should build a Miners' Guild sooner rather than later - the more valuable or numerous the minerals, the higher the priority. If the town is also a unit-production center, the presence of Iron Ore or Coal raises the priority of building a Miners' Guild even further - possibly up to the point where it will be built very early despite its high Construction Cost (and possibly even funded partway with , if you can afford to do so). On the other hand, this high Construction Cost means that small towns or towns that are in no hurry to develop rapidly can sometimes skip this structure until they have no other priorities to focus on. -producing centers may have little need for this structure at all, and towns with no Terrain for mining won't be able to build it anyway. Note that the availability of the Miners' Guild to some races and not to others (i.e. Lizardmen and Trolls) means that multi-racial empires should be careful when choosing which race should populate areas near large concentrations of Minerals. If you want to get the most out of such a mineral-rich area, choose a race that can quickly reach Miners' Guild construction, such as the Dwarves or Klackons. Finally, Dwarves will want to construct a Miners' Guild early-on in their unit-production centers not only for its massive bonus but also for access to the Steam Cannon. This gives the Dwarves a powerful Ranged Attack unit (in fact, their only Ranged Attack unit). Category:Town Buildings